Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- Behavior; Shore birds -- North America
Heavy winds on the ocean sometimes prove disastrous to the
migrating hosts of northern phalaropes. Chapman records finding
many bodies of this species in the tide pools of the Farallon
Islands. A heavy northwest wind had been blowing along the coast
for the previous two weeks, and many of the birds had resorted to
inland pools of water. The emaciated condition of the birds at the
Farallones was probably due to their inability to procure food
while on the open ocean in migration. Forbush records numbers of
these birds as being killed on the Atlantic coast by dashing
against lighthouses at night. In the Cape Region of Lower
California, Brewster found that "most of the birds examined had
lost one or more toes, and two or three an entire foot, and part of
the tarsus also, while others showed gaping wounds on the breast.
These mutilations were probably caused by the bites of fishes."
Emerson records finding several of these birds killed by flying
against the telephone wires strung across the salt ponds on the
marshes west of Hayward, and says that very many of this and other
species of birds are killed in this manner.
_Winter._--Practically nothing is known about the winter home of this
species in the Western Hemisphere. It is evidently south of the borders
of the United States and probably south of the Equator on the open
ocean. The few straggling winter records for California and South
America give but a scant clue to the winter resorts of the vast numbers
that pass us on migrations.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Distributed over both Old and New Worlds.
_Breeding range._--Arctic regions of both hemispheres. In Europe and
Asia the breeding range of the northern phalarope extends from Iceland,
Spitsbergen, and Scandinavia, across northern Russia and Siberia to
Bering Sea. South to Sakhalin Island, southern Russia (Orenburg), and
the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, and Orkney Islands.
In North America the breeding range extends north to Alaska (Near
Islands, St. Paul Island, Nelson Island, Pastolik, St. Michael, probably
Golofin Bay, the Kowak Valley, Cape Blossom, Point Hope, Point Barrow,
and the Gens de Large Mountains); Mackenzie (Franklin Bay); Keewatin
(Cape Eskimo); probably Baffin Island (Cumberland Sound); and Greenland
(North Star Bay, Upernavik and Jacob's Bight). East to Greenland (Disko
Island); Labrador (Nain and Hopedale); and western Quebec (Fort George
and Rupert House). South to western Quebec (Rupert House); northern
Manitoba (York Factory and Fort Churchill); Mackenzie (Artillery Lake
and Fort Rae); and Alaska (Nushagak and Kiska Island). West to Alaska
(Kiska and Near Islands).
_Winter range._--The winter range of the European and Asiatic birds
appears to extend south to southern Japan, the north coast of New
Guinea, Ceram, the coast of Beluchistan, the east coast of Arabia, and
probably points in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account